Hot & cold

Calgary Herald02.14.2012

Despite moving there only a few years ago, Chestermere is more than just a bedroom community — away from the crowd and traffic — for Morris to call home. And for the community, Morris is more than just an Olympic athlete. When he’s not crisscrossing the country, playing at major curling events, Morris is a full-time firefighter for Rocky View County.Estelle Besserer
/ For the Calgary Herald

Despite moving there only a few years ago, Chestermere is more than just a bedroom community — away from the crowd and traffic — for Morris to call home. And for the community, Morris is more than just an Olympic athlete. When he’s not crisscrossing the country, playing at major curling events, Morris is a full-time firefighter for Rocky View County.Estelle Besserer
/ For the Calgary Herald

“One of my passions is building, so I was really meticulous in how my home was constructed," says Olympic curling gold medallist and full-time firefighter John Morris, whose two-storey, 2,600-square-foot home with a walkout basement is a sports enthusiast’s fantasy land.Estelle Besserer
/ For the Calgary Herald

“One of my passions is building, so I was really meticulous in how my home was constructed," says Olympic curling gold medallist and full-time firefighter John Morris, whose two-storey, 2,600-square-foot home with a walkout basement is a sports enthusiast’s fantasy land.Estelle Besserer
/ For the Calgary Herald

“One of my passions is building, so I was really meticulous in how my home was constructed," says Olympic curling gold medallist and full-time firefighter John Morris, whose two-storey, 2,600-square-foot home with a walkout basement is a sports enthusiast’s fantasy land.Estelle Besserer
/ For the Calgary Herald

“One of my passions is building, so I was really meticulous in how my home was constructed," says Olympic curling gold medallist and full-time firefighter John Morris, whose two-storey, 2,600-square-foot home with a walkout basement is a sports enthusiast’s fantasy land.Estelle Besserer
/ For the Calgary Herald

“One of my passions is building, so I was really meticulous in how my home was constructed," says Olympic curling gold medallist and full-time firefighter John Morris, whose two-storey, 2,600-square-foot home with a walkout basement is a sports enthusiast’s fantasy land.Estelle Besserer
/ For the Calgary Herald

“One of my passions is building, so I was really meticulous in how my home was constructed," says Olympic curling gold medallist and full-time firefighter John Morris, whose two-storey, 2,600-square-foot home with a walkout basement is a sports enthusiast’s fantasy land.Estelle Besserer
/ For the Calgary Herald

“One of my passions is building, so I was really meticulous in how my home was constructed," says Olympic curling gold medallist and full-time firefighter John Morris, whose two-storey, 2,600-square-foot home with a walkout basement is a sports enthusiast’s fantasy land.Estelle Besserer
/ For the Calgary Herald

“One of my passions is building, so I was really meticulous in how my home was constructed," says Olympic curling gold medallist and full-time firefighter John Morris, whose two-storey, 2,600-square-foot home with a walkout basement is a sports enthusiast’s fantasy land.Estelle Besserer
/ For the Calgary Herald

“One of my passions is building, so I was really meticulous in how my home was constructed," says Olympic curling gold medallist and full-time firefighter John Morris, whose two-storey, 2,600-square-foot home with a walkout basement is a sports enthusiast’s fantasy land.Estelle Besserer
/ For the Calgary Herald

One of Canada’s premier curlers, on perhaps Canada’s most legendary curling team, Johnny Mo — as he’s known to friends and fans alike — stood on the podium at the 2010 Winter Olympics in a state of ecstatic satisfaction that few people will ever know.

“It’s hard to describe,” says the 33-year-old third on the Kevin Martin team that won Olympic gold on home soil.

“You’re on the podium and you’ve only seen this sort of stuff on TV — athletes with Olympic gold around their neck — but you’re not really prepared because you’ve spent all your time thinking about the process and not the result.”

Winning gold marked the pinnacle for Morris, who had spent long hours on the ice, traveling tens of thousands of kilometres over the course of more than two decades

“I remember being 15 years old‚ and that was right when the Olympics was starting out for the sport — and dreaming about it then,” he says.

“It has always been in the back of my mind: ‘I want to win an Olympic gold medal one day.’”

Being atop the podium with his teammates was a reality that most certainly had a dreamlike quality. While Martin’s team of Morris, lead Ben Hebert and second Marc Kennedy had been together since 2006, and winning Olympic gold was their only objective, nothing could have prepared them for the emotional impact of actually achieving that goal.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to top that feeling again in life,” he says. “That would be tough to top.”

Still, some feelings do come close, he admits. A resident of Chestermere, Morris says he and Hebert, also a resident, have enjoyed celebrity status in the lakeside community about 10 minute’s drive east of Calgary. It’s a kind of support that can only be found in an Alberta town where connections with the community run deep, he says.

Despite moving there only a few years ago, Chestermere is more than just a bedroom community — away from the crowd and traffic — for Morris to call home. And for the community, Morris is more than just an Olympic athlete. When he’s not crisscrossing the country, playing at major curling events, Morris is a full-time firefighter for Rocky View County.

Besides the obvious firefighter duties, Morris often visits schools in the community, educating children on fire prevention and safety — one of the most enjoyable parts of the job, he says.

And it’s those visits that have led to some of his most memorable and rewarding experiences as a resident of the town.

One event stands out. Before the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, he visited Rainbow Creek Elementary School and gave the school a Team Canada jersey.

In fact, every school in the town was tuning in to watch the team play.

Winning gold may have been the height of Morris’s life experiences, but returning to a community of adoring fans certainly ranks up there, too, he says

“I’ve never heard the applause so loud coming back into that school after the Olympics. I still get goosebumps going into Rainbow Creek School.”

That Morris ended up living in the town of about 14,000 people and developed a fondness for all things Chestermere may seem like an odd fit.

The town has a curling facility at its recreational centre, but it’s hardly a curling mecca like many other Western Canadian towns. Furthermore,

Morris was born in Winnipeg, raised in Ottawa and only moved to Calgary when he realized that to develop as a curler, he needed to go where the action was.

“The depth of curling out here — curling in general — is stronger out west,” he says. “The two national training centres are in Edmonton and Calgary, so if you really want to further your career, you have to make the jump out west.”

On paper, Morris and Hebert train with Martin in Edmonton at the Saville Sports Centre.

“When we have training camps, we go to Edmonton, but Ben and I will throw rocks here in Chestermere as well,” he says. “We work out at the gym here.”

Originally, Morris moved to Calgary after finishing his kinesiology degree at Wilfred Laurier University about a decade ago.

Despite living most of his life in large urban areas, Morris says he’s always preferred the laid-back lifestyle and close-knit feel of smaller communities.

“It was hard to feel part of the community in Calgary because it’s such a big city,” he says. “It was important for me to feel like I was part of a community when I moved west, and I found Chestermere provided that.”

The town also offered Morris close proximity the outdoors — a must, he says.

Curling may be his passion, but Morris’s second love is fishing.

In the summer, he can often be found in his boat, a fishing line in the water on Chestermere Lake — which lies at the heart of the community.

The lake, sunny skies and a clear view of the Rockies may be the ideal setting to pass the long summer days, but Morris’ sanctuary year-round is his custom-built home in Chestermere’s neighbourhood of Westmere Estates.

It’s actually Morris’s second home in the town, and the third he’s owned in Alberta.

“I got really lucky in 2004. I bought a house in Calgary and did well in real estate,” he says.

Morris’s first two homes were what he calls “cookie-cutter houses” — not much different from what you’d find in any newer suburb across Canada. But his third is a “Johnny Mo” original.

“One of my passions is building, so I was really meticulous in how my home was constructed.”

The two-storey, 2,600-square-foot home with a walkout basement is a sports enthusiast’s fantasy land.

“I love sports so I have a putting green in the backyard,” he says.

Then there’s the trophy room filled with mementos he’s gathered throughout career, including Brier championships and medals from skipping a junior team to back-to-back world championships.

The centrepiece, however, is his Olympic experience. Surprisingly, however, the focus isn’t all on curling. There’s a large homage to hockey, too. Morris says he and his teammates were fortunate enough to spend time with Sidney Crosby.

“We got to know him pretty well, and he is very nice guy,” Morris says. “He even gave us a signed game-used stick and jersey, and I made a whole locker about that in my home.”

His home also includes a number of other unique features, including a steam room, landscaping that incorporates the natural habitat of the surrounding area and a garage that he calls his “man-cave.”

While his trophy room may contain a priceless collection of curling and Olympic memorabilia, it’s not the home’s most distinguishing feature.

That, instead, is a design element that can only be called “firefighter chic,” which sets his home apart from even the most triumphant of Olympic athletes.

“I have a fire pole that goes down from the second storey to the walkout basement outside,” Morris says.

Morris’s roots in Chestermere, however, run deeper than his custom-built, dream-home. Even if he were to move away, he’d still have

left his mark. He recently had a street named after him: John Morris Way.

Of course, Morris says he’s not going anywhere soon. If anything, he wants to deepen his connection. The hope is one day he and his team will call Chestermere their home base.

While the Martin team trains in Edmonton — where Martin lives — Morris says that will likely change after 2014.

“I would say in about two years, Kevin will retire after the Olympics, so our plan is to base our team here,” he says.

In the meantime, the focus is on a golden repeat at the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Along the way, Morris will continue to soak in the experience of playing with Martin — a legend in the sport.

“Just hearing all the stories from him and playing with him have allowed me to evolve my own curling skills and career as well,” Morris says.

Of course, the road to the Games is long and nothing is guaranteed. Just qualifying is difficult, especially considering their fiercest competition is homegrown.

But Morris says his team is used to defying the odds and proving the naysayers wrong.

“There were some doubters out there when we first hooked up because we had both been skips and a lot of times two skips together can be like oil and water,” he says. “But it worked out really well and we’ve had a great tenure together so far.”

Chestermere has been an equally good match for Morris. He says he never felt as much a part of a community.

“It’s just a great all-around town,” he says.

And Morris certainly isn’t shy about talking up Chestermere’s many benefits. He’s even convinced a few people to call it home.

“Whenever I talk to my friends who come from other places to Calgary — like a lot of people do — and they come out to Chestermere, they look into moving here,” he says.

“I’ve had about four or five friends move here and they really enjoy it.”